The Vulnerable Ones
by Mara Gibby
Summary: Throughout time there have been what people would consider fairy tales. Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Snow White, just to name a few. In life, in real life, the handsome prince doesn't kiss you and wake up. Happily ever after takes time and paitence.
1. Chapter 1

_Dedicated to Kelli for making me keep going on writing this. I hope you all enjoy it. I've been writing for as long as I can remember and this is my first venture down the fan fiction route. Please let me know what you think, as the key for any good writer is to know that constructive criticism is welcome. Just don't be jerks. hugs_

It was the ring on her finger that Brooke didn't like.

In her mind, her outward appearance she was everything that a happy friend should be. But the bruises on her face hid a different story that Brooke wondered if she would ever tell the truth too. It wasn't until she was finally alone that she really decided to let it go.

Lucas Scott was the one boy she would have given it all up for.

He was supposed to be her forever.

_People who are meant to be together always find their way in the end._

She had believed that her entire life. Ever since she was just some silly teenager who had too much money, too much time, and not nearly enough parental supervision, and she had been in love with Lucas Scott. Well, 'had been' was such a joke, Brooke realized, she always would be.

She rolled over on her back, cringing a little when the pressure on her leg shot up her back and into the overworked pain receptors in her brain.

_A fist flew up._

_Her head hit the floor beneath her. "Get—off me!" Brooke screamed, kicking her legs up and finding this strange strength to kick the body that was on top of her off. He fell backwards into one of the square couches she had put in the center of the store and Brooke rolled, unable to rely on herself on her feet to get away from him. He'd just come out of no where and jumped on her, rolling her back across the couches and into the floor. It knocked the sense out of her but Brooke was strong and somewhere inside of her, she knew that she was. So there was this thing that kicked into her stomach to make her fight. It seemed like the most important thing in the world to her. This was her life. This was the thing that seemed to make everything a little better, and while Clothes Over Bros was just a company, she felt like it was all she had left and she was going to fight for it. _

_She locked her foot around a gold mannequin and sent it to the floor as she grappled across the floor. Just get to the store room and you can lock the door Brooke. _

_If only it was that easy._

She had the fighter instinct but men were so much stronger. He had hooked her ankles in his hands and pulled her back across the floor and it had been all over.

All she had wanted was her 'best' friend.

And her best friend was busy. Too busy for her. And it was always about Lucas.

In high school Peyton had been this quiet little broody girl who had too many records and used too much black paint on her drawings, never there for Brooke, because she had been too busy trying to deal with the fact that she had her chance with Lucas and had blown it. Over and over again, never realizing until he was happy with someone else until it was too late for her. And who care who she stepped on to get what she wanted? Brooke was finally starting to realize that was how Peyton was. She had dropped that horrible lie about falling down the stairs in the hopes that Peyton would see right through it and call her on it. She was dying to tell someone and sadly it had been Deb that had the time for her. Even her best friend didn't have time for her.

And now she was gone. Without a second thought. Without a question as to if she would be okay by herself in this big house that Brooke had, frankly, gotten for both of them. She was just out the door like it was nothing. And Brooke could feel herself becoming more and angrier. Pushing herself off the bed, she walked across the room and felt completely lost. She put a hand on the door and she could hear Lucas' voice outside. He wanted to see her.

She wanted to see him too.

But she didn't want him to see her like this. God, she hated to look vulnerable around him. She had always wanted Lucas to see her as strong, brave, with everything put together. It was why she had broken up with him after the wedding, she was so desperate to prove to herself that she could go on without Lucas Scott. And she had even if her heart had broken a little more every single day.

And now Peyton got everything she wanted and what had she really given up for it? Brooke had given Lucas up just so he would be happy in a moment that would have been a perfect second for a reunion. For just a moment, while that confetti fell down around her feet on the glossy court and celebration went on around her, she had imagined what it would be like if she and Lucas gave it just one more shot.

The sigh that escaped her lips was heavy and weighed on her like a thousand bricks all tied together. She almost didn't hear it when her phone vibrated against the soft sheets of the bed but as she crawled across the comforter, she looked at the caller ID.

And it was her heart that had her answering.

"Hello?"

"Hey!" It was Luke. It was the exact voice she wanted to hear and nothing seemed to matter more in the world than this moment. All the bruises on her skin and the pain in her heart seemed to drift away with that single word. She cleared her throat and felt nervous. It was as if he could see right through the phone and right into her soul to all the things that were going on in her head. "Brooke?"

She covered the back of her hand over her lips when the sob escaped. "Yeah." She cleared her throat trying to cover it up. But she should have known that he wouldn't fall for it.

"What's the matter?"

"I…it's just quiet in here. Did you and Peyton get to the house?"

"Yeah, I just dropped her off, I was heading over to Nathan's but--I really wanted to see you."

"I'm sorry Lucas," She whispered, sitting down on the edge of the bed and wrapping her arm around her stomach. "I was in the shower."  
"I didn't hear the water running." He had a tease in his voice and it finally made Brooke smile.

The smile felt like it was going to crack her face, she hadn't had a smile like that on her face in a long time.

"Damn it, Lucas," Brooke said, "Can't you just let me lie?"

"No." He said, "I can't."

"Lucas…" Brooke looked over at the clock. And she took a chance, took a step, one that she hoped was in the right direction. "Lucas, can you--will you come by? I didn't get to see you and I…it would be nice too. I haven't seen you since Angie left and…will you?"

She needed it.

Screw that, she needed him.


	2. Chapter 2

Lucas felt lost.

His nerves were as jumbled up as a boy on prom night about to cop his first feel, and he really shouldn't feel this way, it was just Brooke. As soon as he had the thought, he realized how horrible it sounded. 'Just Brooke' made her sound like she was someone that could come in and out of lives without touching them or making a difference. And that simply wasn't Brooke. Everyone she had ever come in contact with had been touched or changed by her in some way.

She had been one of the things that helped pull Nathan and Haley together, she had brought Rachel back to heal her, and though it hadn't stuck, it had still been something. Brooke Davis took in a baby so that child could have a heart and grow up. And if it weren't for Brooke, Lucas did not know what kind of a person he would be. Brooke had changed him in so many ways and stood beside him throughout so many life lessons.

Well, Lucas thought as he pressed the button on the wall to signal the doorbell throughout the house that he had stood in only a few short hours ago, Brooke Davis wasn't going to change the world some day. She already had and she didn't even know it. She had certainly changed his. Lucas had wondered for a long time if the things he had put her through during their incredibly torrid relationship had made her a different person.

He wanted her to be a good person and he knew that she was. Lucas just didn't know if she knew it yet or not.

"Holy shit." He lifted a hand to cover his mouth when the door opened and Brooke's head peeked out.

"It's really not as bad as it looks." She sheepishly shrugged a shoulder into her cheek and opened the door wider for him. It burned but not from pain, when Lucas reached out to touch her chin with his thumb and forefinger. "No," Lucas said, "It's worse." Pressing his lips together, he stepped back and extended his arms. Wrapping Brooke up tightly, he stood there with her on the porch, the door behind her wide open and he held her tiny body in his strong arms.

She shook and it took Lucas a second to realize that it wasn't winter, but summer, and Brooke wasn't shivering because it was cold. Turning his head, his cheek rested against the top of her head and he finally heard the little squeak of sobs escaping out. "Brooke." He whispered her name really more to himself rather than her and wondered what he missed when he took off to Vegas. The heavy weight of the kind of friend that he had been…or, well lack thereof, weighed heavily upon his shoulders and against his heart. "Come on." He slid an arm down to her waist to help her move a step backwards.

But when she faltered, he shook his head. "It's not worth it." Reaching down, he scooped her legs at the knee and carried her into the house, hitting the door shut with his hip.

Brooke didn't worry about asking Lucas to lock it. He was here and she felt safe, but she would never say that out loud. She hated for him to see her like this and that was the reason she had tried to hide herself away. She could never hide herself from Lucas. He always saw through the exterior and what was hidden beneath; and in truth, Brooke Davis was a girl who was afraid she had never really been loved. Her mother hadn't really loved her, for whatever reason, Brooke wasn't sure to this day what she had done to make her mother hate her so much. Whatever the reason, it didn't make it hurt anyless.

It was funny to Brooke sometimes, how Peyton felt that people always leave.

When in truth, Peyton got everything she ever wanted. Like Lucas.

And that just made Brooke cry a little harder, reaching up her hands and curling them into the black t-shirt that Lucas wore. He shifted her, pulling her upper body into his lap while her toes disappeared beneath the cushions of the couch. He held her and she held onto him and it was everything Brooke could have wanted.

"Talk to me, Brooke," Lucas whispered, breaking a silence that seemed to stretch on for days.

"I'm so…" Alone. Before she could say the word, another round of sobs started to rip through her body. She realized that these were tears she had held in for years. She had tried to be strong for so long and she just couldn't anymore. Lucas was here and it was okay to break down. "I don't want to be alone, Lucas." She whispered, rubbing her nose against his chest and trying to find a way to just bury down into his heart and hide there.

Lucas rubbed her back with his hands, holding her against his chest and trying to find a way to draw her in and keep her close. "Brooke," He whispered, "What do you mean alone? You're not alone."

And no, no she wasn't. Not as long as she had herself. It was so easy for that to kick back in, the tears drying up almost instantly as she went rigid and shifted out of his lap into the other seat of the couch. But she unknowingly turned her knees and body towards him so that their knees were touching. "Of course I am," She said, reaching up to her forehead and pulling on her bangs from the roots so that she could try to cover her face. "Angie is gone, Milie and Mouth are gone, Victoria's NEVER really been here and…." She looked around, "…you and Peyton are getting married."

"Marriage doesn't mean we're not going to be around."  
"When was the last time we all hung out, like we did before?"

Lucas smiled at her. "Is this like when you were asking me if we could go back?"

"You remember that?"

"Of course I do, why do you think I wouldn't?"

She shook her head, "I don't know… just…thought, you know, cause it was me…"

"What that you wouldn't matter?"

Her silence was all the answer Lucas needed.

"Brooke, listen," Lucas reached over and laid a hand over her knee. "No matter what happens," He made a promise without really saying the words, "I am always going to be here. Because I give a rats ass about you."

Brooke noticed that he left Peyton out, but she went on from it for now. There was a look in his eyes, something that made her trust him inexplicably all over again. "My store got broken into," She whispered, "When I was leaving. It was dark and he came out of no where and just…" She looked up at him, then down into her lap, "There were no stairs."

Lucas grinned a little, "I sort of knew that," He said, "By taking one look at your face."

"Yeah, I am pretty fucked up aren't I?"

"He's a bad person, Brooke, and one of these days, when he get his, karma will be the greatest retribution."

"What about my karma?" She whispered the same question she had asked Peyton and wondered if she would get an answer that was worth a damn out of Lucas. Watching his face, she noticed that he really seem to be thinking about it. After a second, he reached over and wrapped an arm around her shoulder,

"It's like what we were talking about. How the things we have to go through bring us to the places you want to be."

"And where do you want to be? Married to Peyton and a houseful of kids?"

Lucas looked over at her, "I love you Brooke Davis, you know that?"

"I love you too, Lucas Scott." She leaned her head over onto his shoulder and rested there.

And her heart lifted, just a little.


End file.
